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Bullied by the Best: Why the Bully Paradigm Is a Bad Fit for Understanding the Mob

Bullied by the Best: Why the Bully Paradigm Is a Bad Fit for Understanding the Mob

Janice Harper
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 15
ISBN13: 9781522594857|ISBN10: 152259485X|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781522594864|EISBN13: 9781522594871
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9485-7.ch002
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MLA

Harper, Janice. "Bullied by the Best: Why the Bully Paradigm Is a Bad Fit for Understanding the Mob." Confronting Academic Mobbing in Higher Education: Personal Accounts and Administrative Action, edited by Caroline M. Crawford, IGI Global, 2020, pp. 29-43. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9485-7.ch002

APA

Harper, J. (2020). Bullied by the Best: Why the Bully Paradigm Is a Bad Fit for Understanding the Mob. In C. Crawford (Ed.), Confronting Academic Mobbing in Higher Education: Personal Accounts and Administrative Action (pp. 29-43). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9485-7.ch002

Chicago

Harper, Janice. "Bullied by the Best: Why the Bully Paradigm Is a Bad Fit for Understanding the Mob." In Confronting Academic Mobbing in Higher Education: Personal Accounts and Administrative Action, edited by Caroline M. Crawford, 29-43. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9485-7.ch002

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Abstract

As the prevalence of academic mobbing gains increasing notice, the concept is almost always framed in terms of bullying perpetrated by a group of “bullies.” While mobbing is seemingly bullying writ large, upon closer examination bullying and mobbing are very different forms of aggression. In this chapter, the author discusses how the prevailing bully paradigm has conflated bullying with mobbing, and why doing so is problematic. By focusing on the behavior of animals, she shows how signs of submission and/or domination can end or escalate the aggression, attract others to join in, and cause leaders to ignore or encourage the abuse. She then turns to the ways in which workplace aggression has been cast in moral terms of bullies and powerless victims, while failing to account for the complexity and nuance of workplace aggression, as well as the role of the victim. Finally, she discusses the organizational context of the university, suggesting that there are specific features of the academy that make it ripe for mobbing.

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